ITT annual conference explores key challenges for the travel, hotels and leisure industry in 2012

Posted: 15/06/2012

Penningtons partner Mark Lee was among the delegates at this year’s Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT) annual conference which took place in Barbados between 10 and 12 June. Below is a summary of the main talking points at the event which was attended by 400 ITT members:

UK airport expansion programme

The Rt Hon Lord Andrew Adonis opened the 2012 conference with a discussion on the continuing need for Britain to focus on an airport expansion investment programme in order to sustain future tourism. Although there is currently no white paper from the coalition Government, he urged the travel industry to engage and contribute to the debate, without which growth in tourism would be hampered by the strain in airport capacity in the South East of England.

Making leisure travel experiences special

Johan Lundgren, deputy CEO of TUI Travel plc, which owns Thomson, First Choice and Laterooms, reiterated that his company's aim is to build on its DNA holiday concepts and to get rid of distractions by focusing on customer propositions. Given the huge number of brands offered by the company, the business strategy is to focus 'on the core'. He added that travel operators need to ask themselves what they can do better than their competitors. On the subject of 'all inclusive' holiday destinations, the company believes that this needs to be done in a proper and sustainable way which supports the local community and tourism.

'Anarconomy' rules at Virgin Holidays

At Virgin Holidays, managing director Amanda Willis emphasised that its business challenge is to keep abreast of evolving consumer behaviour and technology. She stressed that customers 'want to be heard' and at Virgin, homage is paid to what she termed as 'anarconomy'. As a business, Virgin believes in innovation and this is exemplified in its recent partnership with HIP hotels for its customers. The company 'employs good people and lets them get on with it'. She added 'our brand is the cherry on top of the cake but our people are the most amazing'. Virgin plans to open 110 retail shops, offering customers a face-to-face experience, by December 2012 and to launch its apprenticeship programme for 100 young workers to cultivate the next generation in the travel industry.

To unlock employee potential, David Fairhurst, Chief People Officer Europe at McDonalds, reiterated that organisations need to know what their businesses want and what their people value. He observed that there is under investment in employee confidence to serve people and that businesses need to connect people to their jobs through employee engagement.

Crisis management in the travel sector

Looking at the lessons learnt from the recent sinking of the Costa Concordia, crisis management was top of this year's ITT agenda. There was a recognition that a company's brand integrity is at risk given the advent of social media which can escalate a situation globally within minutes. The tip of the day is that businesses need to have an informed disaster management plan in place and to ensure that there is a sympathetic and assuring face to the business in times of crisis in order to protect customer confidence in its brand value.